My ONE YEAR ETSY-VERSARY!!!!!!

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***UPDATE***

click here to see who the winner is!!!


***GIVEAWAY CLOSED***
The winner will be announced tomorrow, August 11th! THANKS everybody!!! :)

July 27th marks ONE YEAR since I joined Etsy!

Since then, I have had almost 80 sales, almost 500 hearts, been on the front page at least 2 times, met some new friends, and had lots of fun!! I think this is something worth celebrating, don't you?? Here are a couple of my firsts I'd like to share with you-

My first sold item:

A custom order pair of sock monkeys!

The first shop I hearted:

dapperduds - cute stuff for babies, and lots more!

The first shop to heart me:
Mehran - a handbag should be as unique as you!

My first blog post:
Messenger Owls


My first sale:
(Only one item left!)
Little girl purses on sale!

And now, the FIRST (but definitely not last):
BLOG CONTEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

I am giving away a prize pack of *three items*
worth $35, to one lucky person!
One Plush Messenger Owl, one owl wallet,
and one girls and boys magnet set.



The rules are simple. There are TWO ways to win.

• Write about this contest in your own blog. Then, leave me a comment to this post with your link!

• If you don't have a blog, just leave me a comment telling me your favorite item from my etsy shop.

You must make sure to leave the comment in this post in order to win the prize! *NOTE* You can enter both ways, to double your chance of winning! Remember to leave one post for each entry. Please don't enter more than two times!

The contest will end 2 weeks from now,
on Sunday, August 10th.

I will pick the winner using the
Random Number Generator on August 11th.

The winner will be notified by email or by a comment on their blog, so make sure to leave me a way to get a hold of you! :)

Ready, set...... GO!!!

10 things I do for fun...

...which may or may not be considered fun by anyone else:

1. Sew. Doesn't matter if it's a project for me, for my shop, for a customer... it's fun to have something to work on!


2. Listen to music. Right now, I LOVE Regina Spektor!



3. Scrapbook. I like to go slow (hmm maybe that's why I haven't even completed my wedding album yet...). I take a long time looking at all my pictures, finding ones that inspire me to scrapbook at that particular moment, look through hundreds of saved files of layouts to glean ideas, go through all my papers to find just the right ones, re-position all my photos again and again... it's like therapy for me!



4. Drive. Sometimes when I've had a long day I like to go for a quick drive by myself. I turn my music way up, drive down to the park less than a mile away from my house, maybe take a sketchbook or cell phone, and hang out by myself for a while.

5. LOLcats. http://icanhascheezburger.com/ ... I'm probably too addicted to that site.



6. Call a friend. 'Nuff said.

7. Surf the internet. I am a pro! I usually like to read craft sites, other blogs, news, helpful "tips" websites about sewing, parenting, cooking, etc.

8. Play with my kid. Just yesterday I went down the slide 4 times :) I also think it's a riot to play puppets with him- he can carry on 3 characters all on his own- talent. Building tinker-toys, train tracks, marble tracks, and watching Peter Pan... it's fun to be a kid.


9. Letterbox. Have you ever heard of it? Stamps, treasure hunts, navigation, clues, secret hiding spots, sneakiness, adrenaline, determination... you must try it!


10. Sleep. Yes, this is fun to me! Sleep isn't something I take for granted. It's a real treat when I get a good block of sleep in. (Maybe this means I'm just lazy? No, I would be lazy if I slept all the time. WANTING to sleep, and rarely getting to do so, is not lazy at all! Just... pathetic!) So comfy, so warm, and I feel so great when I wake up! Sounds like a pretty good idea right now... goodnight!

"And that's when I re-neckulized that hippomapotomases were vegimaterians."

It's funny sometimes, trying to decode a 4 year old's language! "Re-neckulize" is my son's new word. It's a mix between "remember" and "realize" and he uses it for both, quite frequently. Also, he's been adding "ma" into every word that has five syllables or over.

OK, it's time for a little thing I like to call...

FRIDAY FAVORITES!

Friday Favorites is a compilation of a few things I have found during the week that I think you should see too!

I will start out with this:



These Camp Out Invitations by skgpapers are the cutest things ever! They are really tiny... made out of matchboxes, and the mushroom bead comes off so the recipient can use it for something else! They are like a mini diorama. Love them!

This polka dot wallet by ZiaZia is so unique and fun... I love everything in her shop! I really like the "messy artistic" look that she has. I can't do messy on purpose like that, wish I could!



1) how to they get up in the tree like that?
2) this was me earlier this week... except I was on a chair, not up in a tree. And, the spider didn't leave, I caught it in a jar. I think it's a black widow. I tried to take pictures and send it to What's That Bug, but I don't think the pictures were clear enough... they didn't reply. Now I don't know what to do with the spider! I hate squishing things, but I have this silly irrational fear that if I let it go, it will find it's way back to me for REVENGE... da da da DAAAA....



The Story Matters is a brand new scrapbooking challenge blog that looks like it could be a lot of fun! I need to catch up on my scrapbooking. I love looking at all the challenge blogs and gleaning ideas for my own layouts, though I usually lurk instead of actively participating.


Mario Bros Theater... poorly filmed, but funny :)

Now I'm off to finish some new sock monkeys to put in the shop next week, work on a wholesale order, and complete bunches of BabyBuddies! Happy Friday to you all!

Mostly fluffy stuff

I thought it might be fun to do a post of all the pets that I would love to have!

Now, I LOVE animals, all animals, but there are a certain select group that I would put in my own personal zoo. In my bedroom. I would get a quadruple King Size bed and cuddle with all of them at night, and they would be my best friends :) Besides that, there are many, many animals out there that need rescuing. Not just cats and dogs! Maybe some day I'll be able to give some of these guys a loving home.

Mini potbelly pig - Pig O' My Heart

Sugar Glider - Out of Love Sugar Glider Rescue

Platypus - I can't really adopt one, but the Healesville Sanctuary is wonderful!

Friesians have always been my favorite horse breed! GORGEOUS!!!!

Newfoundland - So many huge drooly dogs in need at Autumn Acres

The Flash and Thelma Memorial Hedgehog Rescue

Wallaby - A friend of a friend rescued one and had to cuddle it like a baby for 2 months! Oh, the torture!

I don't know what these are really called... I call them miniature monkeys. And they are cute.

If we ever get into our own house, at least two of these animals will be MINE! For now, I'll stick with Clark and Lex, my betas, and Slayer and Ninja, my frogs. Not so cuddly, but just as lovable!

By the way, today was my first day at my nanny job with the new baby, so I guess I'm in a really "aww that's so cute," mood. But I think you got that point already!

Parliament of Owls

Last night I only got about 2 hours of sleep, so me brain no worky today! There is hard evidence too...

*Invisible exhibit one (my exhibits have no pictures, so just use your imagination):
I was doing laundry today. Thought I was doing great. I heard the machine end it's cycle, so I went to change the clothes to the dryer. I opened the lid, reached in, and then groped around confusedly for second before realizing.. THERE WERE NO CLOTHES IN THE WASHING MACHINE. I ran the cycle without clothes.

*Invisible exhibit two:
Kade was going to lay down for a nap, so I took off his glasses for him. When he woke up, I couldn't find the glasses anywhere. After giving up the search, I opened the fridge to get out the milk. You can see where this is going. At least his glasses were nice and cool...

*Invisible exhibit three:
Late last night when I was not sleeping, I decided to list an Owl Messenger, and later this morning I logged into Etsy and found that I had titled it, "Purple and Gay," instead of, "Purple and Gray." Oooooops.

On an exciting note, I made it to the front page of Etsy today!!



Also, I am addicted to making these little guys. Now I have a whole parliament!

Oh, sunny day!

A while back, I posted about some wallets I made. The sunshine one went to my sister, and she asked me to make her a matching messenger bag! She left for Greece last week, and I barely got the bag done so she could take it with her. (My sister is now completely accessorized with stuff made by me, she is like a walking advertisement! haha). Once again, my machine fought with me throughout the making of this bag. However, I conquered in the end, and my machine submitted to my demands. I could hug it, I am so happy!

So here are the pics of the Sunny Day messenger bag!


(You can't see very well but there are orange sun rays sewn onto the flap)





I love this blue ticking! The orange zipper opens up to a nice bright blue lined pocket.

Next on the list (OK... not next... but definitely on there somewhere) is a bag for myself. I want a cute large bag with different compartments and pockets so I can take my crafty stuff with me to my nanny job to work on when (if?) the baby is napping. Right now I am using canvas shopping totes and plastic bags. Doable, but not very stylish :)

I need to run to the store today and buy some more thread, and then I'm going to finish sewing up some really sweet sock monkey ornaments and post some pictures!

It's 1:30 AM. Why am I still up?

I'll tell you why!

First of all, it started with a certain 4 year old who needed to use the bathroom at midnight, right after I finished watching "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" on TV, and layed my head down on my pillow. On cue, I hear bare feet padding down the bunk bed ladder.

45 minutes later, plus 2 more bathroom trips, 6 times up and down the ladder, a few sips of water, 7 denied requests for chocolate milk, 3 monsters vanquished, 1 fan adjusted 2 times, and some stern words, he is asleep. Or so I thought.

I wait up for 10 minutes to make sure he is fast asleep. Satisfied, I climb back in bed, pull the covers up, set my alarm, and close my eyes. Immediately I hear the footsteps again.

"WHAT is it NOW?!?!?!?!"

"I just wanted to say sorry,"

*sniffles a few muffled sobs* (Not me, I don't cry until later in this story.)
*lots of hugs*

"Thank you for apologizing, honey. It's OK. I just want you to stay in bed so I can sleep."

"Oh, ok. Goodnight. Love you mommy. Sweet dreams mommy."

That was the last of it. My brain, though, had been tricked into thinking it was going to get to sleep one too many times. Not anymore! I have passed that point of being sleepy tired, and gone into the zone of insomnia. I am tired, yes, but my body has to torture me and make me stay awake until I am a walking zombie.

I got online, looked at some blogs, searched for some scrapbook inspiration, and edited some pictures. Somehow, I ended up on YouTube. I am going to embed the video that I saw here, because I will need to see this again. Some day I am going to be depressed or stressed, and if I can just pop over here and watch this, I'll be OK.

Once in a while, something strikes me so hard that I just crack. It doesn't necessarily have to be really funny- once it happened because I saw a dead deer on the side of the road. (Which usually makes my cry). I laugh so hard that I don't even know if I'm laughing or crying anymore. My eyes are blurry with tears. I snort, I squeak, I gasp, I choke, I hiss, I make the weirdest contorted faces. I literally can't breath sometimes, and I laugh without making a single sound, until my face turns blue, and I gulp in air like I had just been underwater for 20 minutes. It is uncontrollable, and at times extremely inappropriate. (Try church, during a long solemn prayer). I just can't help it. Rather embarrassing!

This video did that to me. I was worried I would wake the neighbors up. Seriously. Something is wrong with me. Doesn't it feel good to get all that emotion out, though? I'd rather have a laugh attack than a good cry (only because a good cry requires something bad to happen, usually, and I'd rather die laughing than find out my cat had been ran over), and I end up feeling equally better after each one.

Without further ado, the one that almost killed me: